Mark and I had a lovely morning in Trafalgar Square today, attending the Sea Cadets’ annual Trafalgar Day Parade. The weather was glorious, the setting beneath Nelson’s Column could hardly have been more appropriate, and the young people taking part were a credit to themselves and their organisations. I’ve had a long association with Sea…
Tonight I was invited to represent the Oxfordshire Lieutenancy as guest speaker at Oxfordshire Scouting’s recognition evening for adult volunteers. Here’s what I said: It’s lovely to be here tonight, amongst friends and fellow members of the Scouting family, celebrating some truly remarkable contributions to young people across Oxfordshire. I’m here as a Deputy Lieutenant,…
From Baby Boomers to Generation Alpha: changing expectations, changing communities and the future of volunteering in Britain I have been volunteering for more than fifty years. My earliest experiences were not particularly glamorous. As a young Scout, I spent cold, wet afternoons clearing rubbish from the Stroudwater Navigation. At fourteen, I visited an old people’s…
I was nine when my mum introduced me to a line that has stayed with me ever since: “This above all: to thine own self be true.” It comes, of course, from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, although at nine I wasn’t terribly interested in who Polonius was, or whether he was necessarily the wisest source of advice….
This morning I found myself at Friends House in London at something rather grandly, and I suspect, deliberately, called Volunteering Davos. There were no mountains, no snow and rather fewer private jets, but there was a serious purpose behind the name. Convened by Shaping the Future with Volunteering, it brought together leaders from across civil…
There are some places where time behaves oddly. Gilwell Park is one of them. Today I went back for the 100th Gilwell Reunion — and realised, slightly alarmingly, that it is forty years since I attended my first one. I was 22 then. I should make clear that I haven’t been to every Reunion in…
I have been revisiting The History of Youth Work in Europe, the remarkable series developed over a decade through the partnership between the European Commission and the Council of Europe. The seventh and final volume is co-edited by my good friend Howard Williamson, alongside Tanya Basarab, and it is one of those books that prompts…
Local government reorganisation is, by its nature, a conversation that can very quickly become dominated by structures. Which councils will exist? Where will the boundaries fall? Who will be responsible for what? How will services transfer? What will the new governance arrangements look like? All of those questions matter enormously. Here in Oxfordshire and West…
There is something rather reassuring about arriving at a large Scout camp. Before you have spoken to anyone, before you have seen the programme or unfolded a map, you know roughly what you will find. Leaders wrestling with logistics. Young people laughing, building, exploring and making new friends. Somewhere, someone looking for a missing mallet….
Buckle up. This is an essay, rather than a short read… The Scarf Every year on 1 August I open a drawer containing rather more Scout scarves than any sensible person ought to own and spend a few moments deciding which one to wear. It is never quite as straightforward a decision as it sounds….
